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Wake up, conservatives — and Christians. We're getting our rear ends handed to us, and we'll continue to if we don't do a better job of fighting back.

I'm not just talking about electoral politics. Liberal and secular activist groups are as aggressive as ever and winning, energized and enabled by this most radical of administrations — and equally so by deer-in-the-headlights conservatives.

The latest episode in this particular series of unfortunate events involves the Y's rolling over to the relentless bullying of pro-abortion activists to evict Students for Life of America from its facilities.

These self-depicted arbiters of tolerance are in reality poster boys for the "Do as I say, not as I do" school. Indeed, the best formula for failing to meet the standard of tolerance that leftists demand is to behave precisely as they do, not as they say. If, on the other hand, you truly want to live and let live — as these sanctimonious scolds insist we do — you must studiously observe their conduct and behave in exactly the opposite way.

But from a leftist perspective, it's not enough for conservatives to peacefully coexist with liberals and let them do as they please. They are satisfied only if they browbeat dissenters into silence or social banishment.

If you are a group that supports legal protection for the unborn, your views are not entitled to respect from the other side; they're not even entitled to coexist alongside the opposite view — you know, that morally superior view that holds that a woman's right to destroy human life while in her body and sometimes even when it emerges (for any reason at all, no matter how selfish and sordid) trumps the right of that very human life. Your views — and you — must be ostracized and punished.

So it is that pro-abortion groups could not let stand an arrangement between the SFLA and the associate branch director of the Town Lake branch of the YMCA of Austin for the SFLA's use of the Y's showers for the week of the "Students #Stand4Life Bus Tour."

That's right; certain members of the club complained that it would be "too political" to allow pro-lifers in the showers, so they pressured management to exclude the group. Too political? What?

Note that it wasn't that the pro-lifers were carrying placards into the showers or proselytizing recalcitrant pro-aborts while toweling off. It was the mere presence of pro-lifers, even if they were minding their own business, that the pro-abort bullies found intolerable.

But for such relativist leftists, words are pieces of propaganda clay whose definitions are molded into what best serves the liberal agenda. If Webster's is your guide, it was the pro-aborts who were being political here. But not according to the default liberal mindset, which holds that you're not being unduly political if you support the correct causes. You're political only if you have the wrong views.

In the liberal lexicon, you aren't being intolerant if you refuse to tolerate the conservative point of view. Thus, by insisting that the Y's showers be sanitized of those miscreants who disagree with leftist pro-abortion pabulum, the leftists are proving both their tolerance and their open-mindedness. Don't try to comprehend this upside-down thinking, because you can't. But understand that it exists and is epidemic.

Brendan O'Morchoe, national director of field operations for SFLA, said: "We had absolutely no problems on Monday night when we used their facilities. The YMCA management was respectful, but some angry pro-abortion activists were being very aggressive with YMCA staff members, and the staff said they felt threatened. Unfortunately, the anger and rage from the pro-abortion protesters has created a toxic environment, even outside the Capitol building. It's really a shame that the YMCA was bullied by these people. It just goes to show how pro-aborts operate every day."

When such tactics work, they advance the principle that if you are nasty and aggressive enough, you can pressure private groups, let alone the government and public groups, into effectively suppressing the liberties of those with whom you disagree. Even a minority, if sufficiently loud and obnoxious, can force organizations to exclude others purely on the basis of their political beliefs.

Conservatives and Christians are no longer engaged in a cold war with secular leftists. This war is white-hot, and we're losing because we're in denial, naive, willfully and blissfully ignorant, cowardly, or confusing the Scripture that tells us to rejoice in our persecution as an admonition to abstain from politics.

One by one, individuals and groups (Boy Scouts, the Y, retailers threatened with boycotts) are abandoning their principles rather than face the wrath of the totalitarian left.

People often ask me, "Yes, but what can we do?" Well, you can start by recognizing the reality and speaking out against it — even if you will subject yourself to ridicule as a result. That's an essential first step, and we can proceed from there.

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